WWV/WWVH questions

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jaymot

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I was listening to WWV on 10MHz earlier just to try and see if their signal got stronger or weaker after local sunset to give me an idea of propagation conditions. At 10:29UTC I heard them ID in CW several times, followed by a female announcer who was just barely audible.

1. I don't remember hearing CW IDs when I used to listen a lot back in the later 1980s and early '90s. Is this something "new"?

2. I've noticed that the pips come in loud and strong but the time announcements at the top of the minute are either barely audible or totally inaudible. Why is this?

3. It used to be that WWV always used a male announcer and WWVH used a female to make it easier for listeners to tell the stations apart. Do they still do this?
 

dlwtrunked

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I was listening to WWV on 10MHz earlier just to try and see if their signal got stronger or weaker after local sunset to give me an idea of propagation conditions. At 10:29UTC I heard them ID in CW several times, followed by a female announcer who was just barely audible.

1. I don't remember hearing CW IDs when I used to listen a lot back in the later 1980s and early '90s. Is this something "new"?

2. I've noticed that the pips come in loud and strong but the time announcements at the top of the minute are either barely audible or totally inaudible. Why is this?

3. It used to be that WWV always used a male announcer and WWVH used a female to make it easier for listeners to tell the stations apart. Do they still do this?

The cw ID was NOT WWV (or WWVH). Other stations use this frequency for time broadcast throughout the world. Being in the Philippines, bost likely you heard BPM in China. It does CW and voice ID.
https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/BPM
 

Thunderknight

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K2RNI

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Yeah in addition to what other's said that was WWVH you were hearing with the female voice. It get's into Asia pretty well at times. Give 25MHz a try sometime, WWV in Colorado uses it and sometimes the band will open for a short time even in the solar minimum.
 

majoco

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BPM is sometimes louder here than WWVH, along with JJY and the Argentinian station LOL on the grey line - all on 5MHz.
 

jaymot

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I should have written down the CW ID that I heard but I just assumed at the time (I don't know Morse code) that it was WWV as it was a series of two of the same letter followed by a different third letter. Now that I've looked it up though, I think it was probably JJY, though Wikipedia says that their shortwave service stopped in 2001.
 
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spongella

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WWV still has an OM announcer and WWVH has a YL op. WWVH identifies in voice a little earlier than WWV so they don't interfere.
 

jaymot

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WWV still has an OM announcer and WWVH has a YL op. WWVH identifies in voice a little earlier than WWV so they don't interfere.
So they haven't changed their format since I remember hearing them 20+ years ago. Any surprises like that CW ID I heard can be put down to other time stations on the same frequency. That's good to know.
 

jaymot

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BTW last night. Oct. 25th at 14:02-14:20 I was able to hear WWV and WWVH on 5MHz and hear both voice announcements too. The OM on WWV was very weak but the YL on WWVH was better. SINPO 25322, not bad considering they only run a 10 watt transmitter. It's the first time I ever heard the voices. Usually I can only hear the second and minute pips.
 

Token

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And for those who want examples, try this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu-B0-VD6CM

All the same recording, all on 5000 kHz. The female voice is WWVH, the male voice is WWV, and the Morse code is BPM, China. PBM only sends its CW ID 2 minutes each hour, from XX29 to XX30 and from XX59 to XX00. Further, it normally send UTC time ticks, but for several minutes each hour it sends UT1 time ticks. That is what is being heard in this video, UT1 time ticks from BPM and UTC time ticks from WWV/WWVH, so the time ticks from them are distinctly apart.

T!
 

unclejed613

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alas, i live in WWV's skip zone (i live in Denver, WWV is in Ft Collins) so i can rarely hear it, but i often get WWVH.
 
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